Can I get business fibre broadband in my area?

Business fibre broadband is not quite available to all businesses in the UK, however according to Ofcom, 94% of businesses in the UK have access to business fibre broadband. There is a high chance that your business could be situated in a fibre broadband area, so you could soon benefit from the fast speeds available.

What is business fibre broadband?

Fibre broadband provides high-speed internet access via fibre optic cables, which are much faster at data transfer than copper cables. The fibre optic cables are laid in a network which is capable of transferring data at high speeds across great distances, it literally travels at the speed of light.

There are two types of fibre optic broadband, FTTC broadband and FTTP broadband. FTTC stands for Fibre To The Cabinet and is often referred to as superfast broadband. The fibre optic cables run between the phone cabinet on your street and the telephone exchange, with copper cables then used to deliver the broadband to your business premises.

In contrast FTTP broadband which stands for Fibre To The Premises, delivers ultrafast broadband directly to your premises via fibre optic cables. This is the fastest form of business fibre broadband, although it is not as widely available as FTTC broadband. The minimum download speeds provided are 300Mbps, although most FTTC connections will still provide speeds of at least 30Mbps.

How do I find out whether business fibre broadband is available?

The majority of business broadband providers offer a useful tool on their website which will quickly check business fibre broadband availability. Simply enter your postcode within your chosen suppliers’ website and you will be provided with an instant result. To improve the accuracy of these tools you should enter your business landline number, which will help the potential provider accurately predict the speeds available to your business. In general, the closer your business is located to the street cabinet, the faster your business fibre broadband.

What if business fibre broadband is not available?

If business fibre broadband is not available in your area, you can still opt for an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. These are usually more than enough for domestic properties, however if your business relies on multiple users being connected at the same time you may experience slower speeds.

Fibre broadband is being installed in more areas across the country, so if your business is located in a remote area or is too far from the street cabinet, you may soon be able to avail of a business fibre broadband connection. Your local council will be able to advise if there are plans to install new fibre lines near you in the near future.

Openreach also provide a map on their website, so you can search for progress and future availability of business fibre broadband, using your postcode or landline number. If there are no current plans listed on their website, it is possible to register your interest in fibre broadband with Openreach.

In addition to Openreach upgrading its network, Virgin Media are also slowly expanding their fibre offering. Although, their current focus is on improving the speeds available to existing customers, rather than installing new networks. Elsewhere, there are smaller network operators such as Gigaclear, CityFibre and Hyperoptic, which are building fibre networks in specific cities and some rural areas.

As you can see it is very likely your business will be able to access fibre broadband and in many cases, you will be able to compare packages to find the best deal. There are many business Wi-Fi fibre packages available and we can help you find the most competitive solution for your specific requirements. Our comparison service is dedicated to find the right solution for your business for less.

Kerry Fawcett